مهدی شیداییان

Purpose: In line with their function to fight, control and combat crimes, governments have duties and powers. One of these tasks is criminalization, punishment and prosecution of crimes. Drugs are one of the major challenges facing societies and the scale of its destructive challenges is still added in current age. The resort to criminalization and the penal combat with this phenomenon has been a common practice of our country and other ones. Methodology: The present research is applied in terms of purpose and content analysis method. In the organization of research, the documentary and library methods have been used and the information analysis has been obtained qualitatively and based on the inference of the researcher on the sources and texts. Findings: Considering the legal status of our country, it is considered that, by respecting numerical proportions (math and Aristotelian) and paying attention to the amount of narcotics, the legislatures have criminalized the use of narcotics, especially minor narcotic drugs, in any amount. Conclusion: looking at the statistics of the cases brought to the judiciary, attention to the number of prisoners in the country, the statistics of the prisoners belonging to this group of crimes, and, on the other hand, paying attention to the community, despite the application of repressive criminal policy in the country, regarding drug crimes, in particular crimes of minor crimes, suggests that this (repressive) approach to the fight against and control of crimes related to narcotics has not been successful in the country

The legislator has adopted a policy of repression and aggravation of punishment in drug offenses. Undoubtedly, the legislator has adopted such measures due to the obscenity and severity of these crimes, as well as their danger to society. However, it seems that this penal policy is not useful for many reasons and does not move the legislator toward its goal (prevention of crime, recidivism, and reform of the offenders); It is probably due to the fact that imposing heavy punishments is reasonable and correct regardless of the causes and factors of the crime, as well as the circumstances in which the person committed the crime. The thing that prevents offenders and people from committing or repeating offenses is the speed and precision of executing the punishment, not the heavy ones. Hence, with regard to the shortcomings of this policy and the weakness of the deterrent theory against social, economic, cultural, and political crime factors at some periods of time, and in particular recently, the legislator has tried to moderate its penal policy. In 2017, an article was added to the Counter-Drug Law to undergo a fundamental change, including the significant reduction in cases of execution and life imprisonment. The moderation of penal policy against drug and psychotropic crimes plays a major role in the elimination of death sentences from the Iranian criminal justice system and promotes human rights status of Iran in the international community. This moderation is originated from the post-revolutionary criminal sociological study as well as internal and external criticisms of strict penal policy; internal criticism was from jurisprudential, legal, human rights, criminology, and criminal sociology circles.